Escow accounts??

[RNDad]

My wife and I are interested in purchasing a 1 or 2 year old Class A MH in the near future, our 4th unit since 2000. Mainly only interested in private party sales, would like to skip the BS at many of the big named stores. The question is when buying used from a private seller, how do I handle the transaction issue. Planning on 50 to 70K and I don't feel at all comfortable turning that kind of money over and waiting for the seller to pay off their loan in order to get me the title. This just seems uncomfortable for me. In the past I either went through a dealer or it was under 10K.
Thanks you.

Thoughts??

Scott

[rgatijnet1]

Florida uses electronic titles. That means that you cannot get the title until the lien holder(the bank) releases the title through the DMV, once the loan is paid off. There is NO paper title that the bank can give you.
Once the title is released, which can take a day or a week, if it is an out of town bank, then only THE SELLER can pay for and get the paper title from the DMV. Once the seller has the title, he can then sign it over to you and then you can register it in your name. You can then pay extra and get a paper title in your name if there is NOT a lien holder.
This can be done in any Florida DMV office once the lien holder electronically releases the title to the seller.

[mfox20]

Deal with the bank directly. The title should be in their name. They can transfer title to you and they pay the difference back the seller.

[2bzy2c]

You would get the lenders name and contact info. You would pay your money to the lender., NOT TO THE SELLER. The lender will then give you a bill of sale and the title.

[RNDad]

Thank you, that exactly my concern as well.

[msturtz]

You can make one check out to the seller's bank and wait for the title. As soon as the seller gets the title you give them the rest of the money in exchange for the title. Make sure you have a purchase and sale agreement and a release of interest signed and notarized. That way if something goes wrong you have recourse. I don't like escrow company's in general and in reality they will only do exactly what I described.

[msmith1199]

Never, ever give the money to the seller!!! But having said that, I've never handled a private party transaction that large so I don't know the best way to handle it. I do know there have been discussions of using escrow companies on here. If you are a cash buyer, you may not need to add the expense of an escrow company, and you could personally work with the sellers lender and wire transfer money directly to them. But if you give the money to the seller, and for whatever reason they don't pay off the loan, you'll be on the losing end of that one as the bank's interest will come first. And if you call the police, they are going to tell you it's a civil problem and you have to sue the seller for the money back.